i'm here for you

This card is from the "you've got this" stamp set. For the center panel, I stamped the flower image onto tissue paper and then sprayed it with my Stampin' Misters which had turquiose water in one and I don't know, maybe pink pirouette in the other, maybe???!!! Might have even mixed the colors at one time! Anyway the colors of the flower ran beautifully! Using my heat gun, I blow dried and then crumpled it up! Yup, you heard right! I then took a piece of pink cardstock and pasted the entire piece with a glue stick. Being careful not to straighten out my tissue TOO TOO much, I uncrumpled it and pressed it onto the gluey pink cardstock. The teal water colored background paper is left over from one of many sessions with several children who beg to watercolor now and then. I keep those papers to use some future day...like today!

his big 4-0

Don't tell him, but my brother just turned 40 and this is his card! Ya I know I'm late, but at least he's still getting something from us! About this card, it probably takes very little to guess he's an avid fisherman and lover of nature. Quiet lakes and slow meaningful fishing!!! 

And guess what I discovered??? SU sells the most delightful tool to personalize your cards beyond your wildest imagination! The Alphabet Rotary Stamp. It's an oldfashioned stamp that takes you back in time! You can scribe WHATEVER YOUR HEART DESIRES on your cards.

feathers, really REAL feathers {effortless}

We have oodles of birds here at our place. (Even the cats have noticed :( Grrrr! ) Anyway, we love to collect these gorgeous feathers as they fall. Jays, magpies, pheasants, ducks and even from our pet guinea fowl! LOL! Our Rhody hens donated to the stash as well. And while I love using SU's four feathers stamps and dies, I do so love the simplicity of collecting and using the real deal. Below you will see what a 4-year-old comes up with. He had a smidgen of help, but not so much. All ideas were his own!

favorite masculine stamp sets (old and new!)

It was time for another scene. And my "The Wilderness Awaits" stamp set just arrived at the UPS office. So...what could I do but create???
Here are my four favorite stamp sets for masculine cards.

"The Wilderness Awaits"

 

"Lovely as a Tree" 

 

"Moon Lake" 

 

"Wetlands"

 

I used a combination of all four of these on my card (top). In my humble opinion these sets are all interchangeable as they are all related to nature, the forest, the lake...you get the picture.

sketch challenge participants

My friend's daughter, Shannon, sent me a beautiful card for the challenge, directly below, that I posted July 8. (I KNOW!!! I SAID I'd be here shortly with a card for that particular sketch, but it took me...and my computer...this long. My comp hasn't been cooperating and who knows? Maybe it won't now, either!)

 Here's Shannon's contribution. I love how she interpreted the pattern and used ribbons instead of paper matting to give us the same design. (Thanks, Shannon! Maybe you will get other girls interested in sketches of the future!)

  Finally, I got mine done! I waited until my new stamp set, "You've Got This" arrived in the mail and then inspiration hit!

Hopefully it won't be so long until I get the next one finished!
Now check out the other two cards on other topics, that Shannon made for us:

Blue poppies. I LOVE poppies and I love what Shannon did with these.
Next check her train zooming out of its tunnel! 

Who's gonna join us? Email me your creations or suggestions for new challenges. I'll be waiting!

sketches by grace #1

If others can do it, I can, too! I don't know how to make sketches "professionally", but I got on good ol' Publisher and played around there for a bit and came up with this. Also recently I've been unwell again so I have a lot of time to rest in my recliner with my sketch book handy. I've got a few designs I want to post in the coming weeks.

I plan to make a card to go along with this sketch. I'd really love it if you made a card using my sketch!! If you make one like it, let me know and we'll try and get it onto here, too! (I don't know how yet, but email me by clicking here a pic of your card and I'll upload it for you!) You also are welcome to come up with sketches you would like to see here.

You can use any colors you want for this card, change up the squares and shapes as you like, as long as we can still see the original idea in your design! Also use any product you like! 

I will be posting my card sometime shortly I hope!